1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to computer software programs, and more particularly, the invention relates to software modifications for capturing business requirements.
2. Description of the Related Art
Financial Service Organization (FSOs) such as banks, credit unions, insurance companies, mutual fund companies, credit card companies, brokerage houses, etc., market many types of financial products and services to their customers, such as savings accounts, brokerage accounts, commercial loans, mortgage loans, auto loans, personal loans, insurance policies, and credit cards. Many FSOs have come to rely on computer systems to help operate their businesses. The computer systems may include software program(s) that process and store data associated with FSO transactions.
An FSO such as an insurance company (IC) may offer several insurance products and services to its clients. For example, an insurance company may offer its clients an insurance policy to manage risks in a variety of areas such as automobiles, property, healthcare, life, long-term disability, professional liability, accidental death, and other suitable areas.
Insurance companies typically process insurance transactions such as determining policy premiums, processing applications for a new policy, and settling insurance claims. Many transactions, such as the task of evaluating, analyzing or determining the amount of an automobile insurance premium or the damage associated with an insurance claim, can be very complex. Complexity in the evaluation process often arises out of the fact that concurrent expertise in legal, medical and insurance fields is often required to arrive at a particular decision involving an insurance claim and/or a premium calculation.
Several factors can affect the amount of premium associated with the policy of a particular applicant. Every automobile operator is unique. Each operator may have a different driving record and may be rated differently by different insurance companies. Factors such as type of insurance coverage desired, type of automobile insured, and geographic area may play a large role in arriving at a determined amount of premium. Thus, it may be desirable to arrive at a unique, customized evaluation of an insurance premium for each individual. Applying across-the-board standards to arrive at a premium amount may tend to result in an inequitable and/or undesirable solution for one or more parties involved. In processing injury-related insurance claims, for example, external environmental factors, such as the experience level of a claims adjuster, record of accomplishment of the legal professionals, post-injury quality of life for the injured party, etc., all can affect the valuation of a claim.
As a result, many insurance companies have been using computer-based and knowledge-based transaction processing systems to process, evaluate, analyze and determine insurance premiums and insurance claims in an individualized manner. A knowledge-based transaction processing system may include an expert system which utilizes and builds a knowledge base to assist the user in decision-making. It may allow the insurance companies to define new business rules and/or use previously defined rules in real-time. Business rules are statements that determine or describe the way a company conducts its business. Each company may develop its own set of uniquely defined business rules which are consistent with the company's business requirements. Business rules may describe constraints, limitations and/or policies associated with a company or a particular product offered by the company. The business rules are generally written by industry experts to evaluate legal, medical, and insurance conditions before arriving at an insurance-related business decision such as determining a policy premium or the valuation of a claim.
There are several drawbacks with some knowledge-based insurance systems. For example, the software development process to develop new insurance transaction processing software is often lengthy, error prone, and costly. In many insurance organizations, there is a disconnection between the key parties involved in the development of new software. For example, two key parties involved in the development of new software may include the insurance system provider, e.g., technical specialists, and the insurance system user, e.g., insurance or business specialists. Very often, users and providers do not communicate with a common vocabulary. For example, the users often outline the business requirements in a word processor document. The technology providers may then read the word processor document describing the business requirement and interpret the requirements to identify specific software programs which may need to be changed to implement the desired business requirement. Not being conversant with the business terminology, the software development staff may often misinterpret critical business requirements. Software may very often be re-invented and re-tested, resulting in a loss of efficiency and productivity.
Writing software code to provide the required functionality may typically require technical professionals (e.g., programmers, software developers) who are familiar with the business requirements, and who are also familiar with the specific computing environment. For example, a technical professional may write one or more business rules in a computer programming language to execute a business requirement. The business rules are often “hard-coded” by the developer of the insurance software. For example, the rules may be written directly in the body of the program as program source code. When there is a new business requirement, it may be necessary to change the source code. Changing the source code may require lengthy program compiling processes and/or validation processes. In some cases, this inflexibility results in delaying the incorporation of the new business rules until the next system release date. Thus, the insurance software is unable to adapt quickly to changing business conditions. This tends to reduce the users' and therefore the insurance companies' flexibility to respond to changing business conditions in processing insurance transactions.
Certain users may have special or unique requirements which may require the standard business rules to be modified (i.e., customized) to meet the requirements of a specific application. The hard-coding method may not easily permit the customization of the business rules in a cost-effective and time-effective manner.